Runway

Plain surfaces are overrated, Junya Watanabe seemed to say with his spring men’s collection, shown in a concrete parking garage plastered with colorful graffiti and worn by a cast of heavily tattooed models, to which the designer added more ink on limbs, faces and necks.

This was a mellow spring offering by Maison Margiela, and not just because models were strolling to the soothing tunes of “Last Year’s Man,” delivered by Leonard Cohen.

Dries Van Noten’s knack for old mansions and their lavish gardens has inspired more than one of his collections, and this season followed a similar pattern. “An imagined view from Kelmscott Manor [the country home of writer William Morris] on arts and crafts today,” the notes to his show informed. That translated into romantic visuals based on photo prints of floral tapestry and tonal patchworks.

When Yohji Yamamoto started his men’s collection in the Eighties, he was “against the standard business suit,” he explained backstage after his show.

Guests were handed ice packs to cope with the sweltering heat at the Issey Miyake Men’s show, held in the courtyard of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie. Though uncomfortable, the modern venue, with its multilevel stairs, provided the perfect backdrop for Yusuke Takahashi’s cool crinkled suits.

Junichi Abe is doing a good job at constructing a relevant wardrobe based on laid-back silhouettes and — with the exception of a pop of fuchsia for spring — subdued colors. Tailored, yes, but essentially very athletic.